---
name: cro-urgency-scarcity
description: CRO lens — is there an honest reason to act now rather than later? Surveyed by the Analyst.
license: Apache-2.0
metadata:
  version: "1.1.0"
---

# Urgency & Scarcity

**Lens question:** Is there a *truthful* reason to act now — a real deadline, limited
availability, or a cost of waiting — and is it made visible at the decision point?

**Signal of the gap (DOM/RUM):**
- DOM: no time/quantity framing near the action where one legitimately exists in the
  authored content; or, the opposite — manipulative fake countdowns that should be
  removed.
- RUM: high consideration (return visits, time-on-block) but deferred action;
  visitors engage but postpone.

**Variant kind it implies:** **CSS-only** to surface an existing, real signal next to
the CTA (reposition/emphasize a deadline the author already wrote, class-gated on
`body.variant-<name>`). **Hard constraint:** urgency must be *honest* — never
fabricate scarcity or deadlines. A dishonest variant is an automatic Validator fail
and damages trust, which is the opposite of the objective.

## Related Skills

- **content-modeling**: where a real deadline/quantity lives in the authored rows/cells — the only legitimate source a variant may surface.